Intrepid Shakespeare Co. has pumped up the volume and energy for its new production "A Midsummer Night's Dream," that supplements the Bard's comedy with a '60s doo-wop soundtrack, rope-swinging and wild slapstick comedy.

The ambitious and imaginatively staged production, co-directed by Intrepid co-founder Christy Yael and Lamb's Players veteran Colleen Kollar-Smith, is zany and free-wheeling and will have broad appeal to children and Shakespeare novices. But the tightly trimmed script, often-frantic pacing, rushed and quirky line delivery and anachronistic mix of Elizabethan text and modern music often causes Shakespeare's poetry (and sometimes plot coherence) to get lost in the shuffle.

"Midsummer" has three intertwining plot lines. Not all of them are equally entertaining, but Yael and Kollar-Smith do a good job at balancing them, and their creative use of music is amusing and inspired.

The main story involves four young lovers. Nerdy, bespectacled Helena pines for the serious Demetrius, but he loves only the headstrong Hermia, who prefers the playful romantic Lysander. Hermia's father Egeus opposes their match, so Hermia and Lysander steal off to the forest to elope, pursued by Demetrius and Helena. Elsewhere in the forest, a group of dimwitted laborers, led by the self-adoring dolt Nick Bottom, is rehearsing a terrible play ("Pyramus and Thisbe") for the wedding party of the local nobleman Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta.

The human characters' fates soon intertwine with that of the forest's invisible inhabitants ---- the fairies and wood nymphs. Fairy king Oberon and his queen, Titania, are squabbling and Oberon plans a prank as revenge. With the help of the mischievous fairy Puck, Oberon casts a wicked spell that forces Titania to fall in love with a hideous creature ---- the unfortunate (but aptly named) Bottom, who has had his head temporarily transformed into that of an ass. Puck also casts love spells on the four young lovers but they go awry, causing much comic confusion.

Musical director Taylor Peckham (who does double-duty as the devilish Puck) has smartly trimmed the songs to a few verses to keep the show moving (it clocks in at a brisk two hours, including intermission) and created some ear-pleasing harmonies. Some of the best song choices are "You Don't Own Me," sung by the furious Titania toward Oberon, and his reply, "I Put a Spell on You"; Titania's spell-induced infatuation with Bottom is punctuated with "At Last"; the well-harmonized quintet "Sh-Boom" emphasizes the unity of the laborers; and "Cupid" represents Helena's wishful plea for Demetrius' love.

The inclusion of songs means the exclusion of text. All four of Titania's fairies and the Changeling Boy have been cut from the Intrepid production, with minimal loss. But the lyrical poetry of the story sometimes feels rushed or clipped. For example, David McBean's Flute, while playing the drag character Thisbe, is highly amusing, but the high-pitched voice he uses for Thisbe makes the words impossible to understand.

When the characters aren't singing, they're expressing their exuberance and emotions physically. Scenic designer Michael McKeon has built a soaring redwood forestlike set (reminiscent of the one he created last spring for Lamb's Players' "Brownie Points") with stair towers and ropes from which Lysander and Demetrius swing and spin in well-choreographed aerial wars choreographed by Kollar-Smith with Molly O'Meara.